Abramovich and partners selling 40% stake in HGM to Sviblov for $574 mln, offer to be made to minority shareholders
MOSCOW. July 31 (Interfax) - Billionaire Roman Abramovich and his partners are continuing to monetize mining assets that they acquired many years ago.
After selling the Baimskoye copper projects in Chukotka in 2018 to Kazakhstan's KAZ Minerals, they are now selling their stake in Highland Gold Mining Ltd. (HGM), which was created almost twenty years ago, when the shareholders of oil company Sibneft contributed the Mnogovershinnoye deposit to it.
Vladislav Sviblov's Fortiana has agreed to buy 40.06% of HGM shares from Abramovich, Yevgeny Shvidler and their partners for GBP3 per share, Fortiana said. The deal will be worth GBP437 million or $574 million.
Now Fortiana is supposed to make an offer to HGM minority shareholders to buy their shares for at least the same price, meaning shareholders have the right to get GBP3 per share.
HGM was valued at almost GBP1.1 billion, or $1.4 billion for the deal.
Fortiana said it is raising financing from state bank VTB for the deal.
Abramovich and his partners considered options for monetizing their asset for some time and saw Sviblov's offer as a lucrative opportunity to divest, the press release said.